This paper examines the impact of the emergence of the “gig economy” on the broader labor market by exploiting the staggered introduction of the ridesharing service Uber to American Cities between 2013 and 2018. Using difference-in-differences methods, Callaway and Sant’Anna’s doubly robust difference-in-differences estimator, Chaisemartin and D’Haultoeuille’s time-corrected Wald estimator, and Abadie et al’s synthetic control method, I […]
The economics of ride-sharing
Uber messy
11 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, occupational choice, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, transport economics, urban economics Tags: employment law, Uber
Caught a fun phone call from an accountant after this week’s column over at the Dom Post (and Christchurch Press, etc) on the court’s decision in the Uber case.If Uber drivers are employees, rather than contractors, as the Court sees things, how will depreciation on their cars be handled? Contractors can count all those expenses…
Uber messy
Uber ruling – driving in the wrong direction
09 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, occupational choice, occupational regulation, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, transport economics, urban economics Tags: employment law, Uber
Dr Oliver Hartwich writes – Last week, an Uber driver surprised me in a conversation about the recent Court of Appeal decision classifying four Uber drivers as employees rather than contractors. My driver was blunt. He has no desire to be an employee. He values his flexibility to take breaks and drive when and where […]
Uber ruling – driving in the wrong direction
Tullock Lecture: Richard Epstein
20 Dec 2018 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, Austrian economics, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, occupational choice, occupational regulation, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, Richard Epstein, survivor principle Tags: employment law, employment regulation, Uber
@SenSanders loving Big @Uber patron denounces #Uber
25 Aug 2018 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, politics - USA Tags: regressive left, taxi regulation, Uber
The Fall of New York City’s Taxi King
27 Jun 2018 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: creative destruction, taxi regulation, transitional gains trap, Uber
How Uber destroyed the NYC cab market
12 Jun 2018 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, occupational choice, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: taxi regulation, Uber
Uber-Losers: NYC Taxi Medallion Owners Are Screwed
27 May 2018 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: creative destruction, taxi regulation, transitional gains trap, Uber
How to Calculate the Gender Pay Gap: The case of Uber
26 May 2018 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, gender, labour economics, transport economics Tags: gender wage gap, Uber
Uber: Revolutionary but Controversial – (The Story of Uber)
30 Mar 2018 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle, transport economics Tags: creative destruction, taxi regulation, Uber
How will ride-sharing shape the future of transport?
17 Jan 2017 Leave a comment
in entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, survivor principle, transport economics Tags: creative destruction, Uber
#Uber and creative destruction in The Knowledge
21 Sep 2016 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, survivor principle Tags: creative destruction, entrepreneurial alertness, taxi regulation, Uber
I used Uber for the first time over the weekend. My car was towed away and a friend had the app on his phone. We used it to go to the tow away yard to pay the $275 release fee.
One of the things I noticed was the the driver could immediately use his GPS because it was pre-programmed by the booking.
When you book a regular cab, they do not know where you are going until they arrive. This is to stop drivers avoiding picking up short trips. It also means that they must know where they are going rather than waste time programming the GPS. Prior to the GPS, they simply had to know where everything was.
The Knowledge, knowledge of London streets necessary to qualify for a black cab License is so difficult that neurologists study the brains of black cabdrivers to see how they are different from others in memory capacity.
Uber destroyed the Knowledge in a wave of creative destruction by linking the app booking request to GPSs. No diver needs to know where anything because the destination and pickup points are both pre-programmed into their GPS.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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